But the larger point here is that education is coercion, that most students would rather be working and getting paid for it, or be with their families, or getting high, or eating pizza, or doing laundry, or fucking, or fishing, or whatever it is that undergraduates do, than sitting in a classroom either listening to a deathly dull lecture by an egghead or alternatively running around the classroom doing group exercises and tossing plastic balls and drawing on craft paper. (Slaves of Academe)
(This post may, in time, become an actual post with content other than this quote. Or it may not.)
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Jess
It’s true. And it’s true partly because nobody teaches kids that learning can be voluntary and even fun — or even refrains from teaching them that it can’t.
I’ve blogged on this recently a couple of times.
J. Nathan Matias
Paul Graham’s essays on “Why Nerds are Unpopular” and “What You’ll Wish You’d Known” both address this issue.
You’re right, Jess. But it’s not just the fault of the system. Because I have found university to be an amazing opportunity for great learning and growth. Unfortunately, many students continue to think like children even after they reach their twenties. Like toddlers who don’t realize that an object in 3-space exists even when out of sight, they fail to see the value of delighting in learning and preparing for a future which they cannot yet see. Often, they fail to imagine a life which balances the sweetness of the moment with the potential to make life yet more sweet. *sigh*